News & Information

Piano recital, critic's talk slated in gallery

Event highlights early 20th-century art exhibit at CLU

November 29, 2012

Armenian-born master pianist Mikael Oganes will perform modern variations of early 20th-century masterpieces.

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Nov. 29, 2012) A free piano recital and expert talk will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, in conjunction with the exhibit “Resonating Images: 1900-1950” at The William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art at California Lutheran University.

Art critic and curator Peter Frank will discuss the paintings, drawings and prints in the exhibit and answer questions from 2 to 3 p.m. Following an intermission with tea and cake, Armenian-born master pianist Mikael Oganes will perform modern variations of early 20th-century masterpieces, including works by George Gershwin and Igor Stravinsky, from 3:10 to 4:10 p.m. A concluding reception will follow.

Frank is the associate editor of Fabrik magazine and an art critic for The Huffington Post. The former senior curator for the Riverside Art Museum has organized shows for institutions throughout the world. The most notable among them was “19 Artists – Emergent Americans,” the 1981 Exxon National Exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

A fiery pianist, Oganes has won prizes at international competitions and wide praise for his original arrangements of symphonic works for solo piano. He is currently touring as a solo and collaborative pianist throughout North America and the Middle East and completing his debut recording with violist Victor de Almeida. He works to bring classical music to wider audiences by incorporating percussion and electronics.

“Resonating Images” is on exhibit through Feb. 2. The free exhibit features works by such prominent American artists as George Bellows, a realist known for his bold paintings of urban life in New York City, and John French Sloan, a member of The Eight whose 1908 group show created a sensation and led to the realist artistic movement known as the Ashcan School.

Two of the great painters of the American Regionalism movement, Thomas Hart Benton and John Steuart Curry, are featured. Benton’s fluid, sculpted figures show people in everyday scenes from regions throughout the country, while Curry is noted for his paintings of life in his home state of Kansas. Works by two prominent German artists, George Grosz and Kathe Kollwitz, are included. Grosz is known primarily for his caricatures of Berlin life in the 1920s. Kollwitz expressed empathy for victims of poverty, hunger and war through her drawings, etchings and lithographs.

The Rolland Gallery is on the north side of Olsen Road between Campus Drive and Mountclef Boulevard on the Thousand Oaks campus. It is open Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and by appointment. For more information, contact curator Jeff Phillips at 805-493-3697.